All posts tagged Trianon Treaty

BUDAPEST–Hungary’s Reformed Church said it will look into the conduct of one of its clergymen after he unveiled a bust of Miklos Horthy, the country’s leader who in the 1920s and 1930s presided over the adoption of anti-Jewish laws and was a close ally of Nazi Germany.

The unveiling of the bust Sunday marked the 75th anniversary of a wartime accord with Nazi Germany which allowed Hungary to get back part of the territory it lost under the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, a peace agreement signed after World War I.

Istvan Szabo, bishop of the Dunamellek Congregation, has ordered an internal probe to check whether the pastoral conduct of Lorant Hegedus Jr., a pastor with close connections to the far-right Jobbik party and whose church hosts the bust. A Reformed Church pastor should do everything for the good standing of his Church, avoid behavior that people find shocking, and refrain from activities that the congregation may find divisive, Rev. Szabo said.

Deputy leader of Jobbik’s parliamentary faction, Marton Gyongyosi, who last year said Hungary should draw up a list of people with Jewish origins living in Hungary, especially among the members of parliament, lauded Mr. Horthy, who led Hungary for most of World War II. Mr. Gyongyosi said the leader’s policies were “nation-saving.” He counted him the greatest 20th-century Hungarian politician, according to Hungarian state news agency MTI, which estimated the number of those attending the church service prior to the unveiling at 400. Read More »

BUDAPEST–As Hungary heads into its fourth annual commemoration of the Trianon Treaty, which saw Hungary carved up after World War I, polls show that the Fidesz party-led government’s focus on national unity has played well with the electorate.

In 1920 the signing of the Trianon Treaty cut off nearly two-thirds of the territory Hungary had previously controlled, leaving a cautiously estimated 2.59 million ethnic Hungarians in neighboring Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Austria, Croatia and Slovenia.

When the current government came to power in 2010 it quickly declared June 4 a Day of National Unity in Hungary and in neighboring countries where Hungarians also dwell.

That move and the subsequent offer of dual citizenship for all Hungarians living abroad have helped the government win voters from the far-right radical Jobbik party, said Orsolya Szomszed, senior analyst at think tank Nezopont Intezet. Read More »

The Hungarian Parliament Monday passed a bill submitted by the new center-right government to introduce a National Unity Day on June 4 to commemorate the anniversary of a traumatic treaty that left much of the Hungarian nation outside the country’s borders after Hungary lost two thirds of its territory following World War I.

According to the bill, “all Hungarians and Hungarian communities are part of a unified Hungarian nation, which exists over state boundaries and is an essential element of the Hungarian identity.”

The creation of a memorial day to commemorate the Treaty of Trianon coincides with an internationally controversial new dual citizenship bill, which Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom signed into law Monday. The bill will change the legal situation of foreign-born speakers of Hungarian who descend from at least one Hungarian parent by giving them the right to apply for Hungarian citizenship.

Signed in 1920 after the end of World War I, the Trianon Treaty cut off nearly two-thirds of the territory Hungary had previously controlled, leaving a cautiously estimated 2.59 million ethnic Hungarians in neighboring Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Austria, Croatia and Slovenia.

To many Hungarians, the wound is still open, a study by Hungarian weekly HVG shows, as no other country lost a similarly high percentage of its population due to a peace treaty.

The underlying political message, however, is that of the new government reaching out to the more nationalist-minded voter in an effort to fish for the electorate now supporting the far-right Jobbik party, so far the most vigilant opposition in this Parliament’s term. Read More »

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